Last Christmas
by The Lady Of Purpletown
Summary: Christmas Day in the Marauders' seventh year at Hogwarts. Wolfstar.


_This is one of the two fics I wrote for my Sirimus-loving best friend as a Christmas present. The other one is "From Ice to Fire" and can be found on my profile._

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**Last Christmas**

Peter was the only one of the Marauders who went home for Christmas in their last year at Hogwarts. Remus couldn't, because there was a full moon on Christmas Evening and they all agreed that he would be safer in the Shrieking Shack than at home. Consequently, Sirius stayed as well – stating that he had nowhere else to go, which wasn't true because he was both welcome with James' parents and with Remus', but he blocked that argument saying that James was staying at school anyway because Lily did, and that he wasn't brave enough to celebrate Christmas with his "family in law". Remus appreciated the fact that the two others were there to keep him company, whatever excuse they thought up for it. They were the only boys of their year who stayed at Hogwarts, and it generally was a lot calmer than usual in the Gryffindor common room.

Professor Dumbledore had, completely coincidentally of course, decided that this year's Christmas Eve dinner would be smaller than usual, and that the real party would be next day's Christmas banquet. Remus had sent him a grateful smile when he announced it, the old man's twinkling blue eyes resting on him for a moment. It hadn't been the worst full-moon night, though. Most of the time, the wolf had been sleeping, curled up against the big black dog. Remus didn't really understand; normally the wolf was fierce and aggressively attacking the remaining furniture of the Shrieking Shack, if not his friends in their animal shape – but he wasn't complaining when he woke up in his human form in the morning.  
What he _did_ regret, was that he had missed the trip to Hogsmeade that day, because he was too tired, even though the wolf had not been that active. James, Sirius and Lily had made up for that by buying him so many sweets that he could bury himself in them so that not an inch of his body would be visible. (Sirius would probably approve of him doing that. Preferably naked. Remus wondered whether that had been his boyfriend's plan all along. Sirius wouldn't like to hear it, but there was _some_ Slytherin wickedness left in Padfoot, heir of the Blacks.)

Now they were entering the Great Hall for the banquet. The huge Christmas tree was decorated with dark red, silver, matt black and bronze Christmas baubles, tastefully combining colours of all of the Houses. (No-one could be blamed for the tree itself being green and Sirius had pointed out that the Slytherins weren't clever enough to boast about it anyway.) The rest of the Hall was adorned with smaller trees, wreaths on the wall and colourful little lights everywhere.  
The teachers were already sitting at the head table; Dumbledore in a flamboyant deep red robe, McGonagall festive as always in black. _Someone_ had to make sure the world stayed in balance.  
When all pupils had arrived, Dumbledore limited his speech to a cheery "dig in!" and so they did. Everything was there, from the traditional stuffed turkey, sweet pears and lingonberries, to Indian and Japanese traditionals. Predictably, Sirius tried a bit of everything of the exotic food, the eleven years of only purely English food not yet forgotten. Remus discovered the boar stew with chocolate sauce and ate far too much of it – it didn't actually taste of chocolate, but it was delicious. Nevertheless it didn't keep him from taking a little piece of every chocolate dessert on his plate afterwards, and a big wedge of the chocolate pie with chocolate icing.  
"Do you never get enough of chocolate?" Sirius asked, raising his eyebrow as he was taking another spoon of his vanilla ice cream.  
"No, and certainly not on Christmas Day," Remus grinned, stealing Sirius' jug of chocolate sauce that was actually meant for the ice cream, and pouring a good bit over his cake.  
"Warn us when you're going to explode, Remus!" Lily said, looking a bit frightened at the amount of food the boy was tucking away.  
The young werewolf survived without even bursting, though, and soon it was time for Christmas crackers.

Sirius was the first to pick a dark purple one, and it was a good thing that he had finished eating, because a green, slimy thing fell out on his plate.  
"What the hell is that?" he said, wrinkling his nose.  
"An overdue slug?" James suggested.  
"I think it's just Flobberworm mucus," Remus said, leaning closer to look at it. "We've used it in Potions quite often, don't you remember?"  
"Who wants _Potions_ ingredients in Christmas crackers?" Sirius asked in disgust, wiping the slime away. "If only it had been something you can use in an _interesting_ potion! Come on, Prongs, open yours."  
James' green cracker opened with an enormous 'BANG' and a set of red, glowing antlers fell out. They all burst out in laughter.  
"I don't even need those," James grinned.  
"No, you already _are_ a red-nosed reindeer!" Sirius chuckled.  
"My nose _isn't_ red and it doesn't rain where I'm a deer!" James argued.  
Remus giggled and provided a distraction by opening his blue bon-bon, also with a loud 'BOOM'. The tube must have been magically enlarged, because a huge candyfloss fell out.  
"No, not _more_ food," Remus groaned, slapping his right hand before his eyes and shoving the candy to Sirius with his left.  
"Thank you," Sirius laughed. "That's a _lot _better than Flobberworm slime!"  
Lily was the last to open her red cracker, and antlers identical to James' fell out, only hers sent out a stream of glittery stars out of the tips. "We match," she smiled at James.  
"See!" James said. "I've been shouting out loud for all these years that we were made for each other and I was right _all the time_."  
Lily rolled her eyes and poked him.  
"She only does that because she loves me so much," James told his two male friends.  
"Shut up." Lily rolled her eyes again and gave him a quick peck.  
"Dumbledore wants to say something," Remus said, smirking.  
"Shush, then," Sirius said, pushing a bit of candyfloss into Remus' mouth.  
"For those who want," Dumbledore's voice thundered through the hall, "we have provided some music and space to dance." Somehow his gaze was on Sirius and Remus again – probably he just knew a trick to give everyone the feeling that they were looked in the eye.

The music started and it were mostly the younger students who immediately jumped up and went to the dance floor. The seventh years of Gryffindor stayed where they were (_some_ of them had eaten far too much after all), chatting, but it wasn't long before a blonde girl – fifth years from Hufflepuff, Remus thought to remember – came to stand by their table, fiddling a bit with her robe. "Er, Sirius?"  
"Yes?" Sirius said, looking up in surprise and only then realizing that he had been staring at Remus for a while without saying much.  
"Well, ehm, could you, I mean, do you want to dance with me?" she asked.  
Sirius frowned. "No, I have a boyfriend to dance with. That's what I keep him for."  
Remus smirked. "I _do_ think that I can manage without you for three minutes."  
"But I don't want you to," Sirius whined.  
The girl looked rejected and went away.  
"You could just have been nice and danced with her. I wouldn't have minded," Remus shrugged.  
Sirius glared at him. "You're supposed to get jealous in a situation like that."  
"But everyone knows you're a loyal dog!" James grinned.  
"Shut up, Reindeer," Sirius scowled.  
"You could just solve your little problem by being the first to ask _him_, Pads," James suggested. "Before he is happy to be stolen by a ridiculously beautiful Hufflepuff girl – I mean, she was ugly!" he corrected quickly as he caught Lily's gaze and she laughed cheerfully.  
"Good idea," Sirius grinned, and Remus moaned and let his head sank in his hands.  
"You've just convicted my toes to a life of flatness, Prongs."  
"You know very well that that isn't true and that I'm a great dancer if I want!" Sirius protested. "Remus John Lupin, will you do me the honour of dancing with me?"  
Remus had long ago given up on believing that he had a choice.

As soon as the Marauders had invaded the dance floor, it was no longer a safe place. Sirius turned out to have a whole series of strange hip wiggles and arm flails in his repertoire, and Remus decided to just jump around with him. James stuck his thumb up when Remus looked at him, giving the tall boy his Marauder approval, before he was also dragged to the dance floor by Lily and started head banging, completely out of rhythm.  
Suddenly, Sirius drew Remus closer in his arms, and started to dance much more slowly with him, even though the music was as vigorous as it had been until the next song started.  
"People are going to talk about us, you know," Remus smiled.  
"So what? Probably everything they're going to say is true."  
"I don't care either," Remus shrugged, before giving him a chaste kiss. "Mistletoe," he said innocently – normally they never kissed in public.  
Sirius looked up at the ceiling. "Yeah, five meters away!"  
"Still counts," Remus smirked.  
"No." Sirius pulled him along until they were standing exactly under the mistletoe. "Now it counts." He pulled Remus close with a hand in his neck, the other hand still on his hip, and kissed him.  
"Oy, you two, get a room!" James' cheery voice sounded next to them.  
They both glared at their friend, who winked. "Sorry for interrupting, I'll make it up to you later tonight!"  
Sirius raised his eyebrow. "There's nothing you can offer us that we want, Potter."  
"Wouldn't be so sure of that! You'll see!" James winked again and danced away with Lily in his arms.  
Sirius looked annoyed until his eyes locked with Remus' again. "My dearest beloved, thou art a good dancer," he complimented pompously.  
"Oh, shut up, we both know who taught me." Remus rolled his eyes but took Sirius' warm hands in his at thigh level, so he could stand closer.  
Sirius quickly pressed a kiss on Remus' neck. He blushed when he saw that Dumbledore had seen it, but the old man winked and danced away with Professor Sprout.

Because, naturally, there were also a few first years present, the party was over rather early, only to be continued in the Gryffindor common room. As usual, that was also beautifully decorated, with red and golden garlands everywhere. James had put on some music and was whirling Lily around, almost knocking over chairs, students and the Christmas tree. Remus was sat in his usual chair by the fire and Sirius seemed to be in a calmer mood than usual, balancing on the arm of Remus' chair with his feet above the ground, just to find out if he would fall off. So far he didn't, and Remus had half an eye on him to catch him in time.  
"I love Christmas," he mumbled, resting his head lightly against Sirius' side.  
"Me too. Shame that Peter isn't here to make pictures of our last Christmas at Hogwarts," Sirius answered.  
"Getting sentimental?" Remus smirked. "But you're right. As annoying as the endless flashlights of Peter's new hobby are."  
"Just because it results in you not being able to read for half a minute – that's why I'm a fan, I get more attention when you can't read."  
Remus laughed and hit him on the shoulder. "What on earth is James trying to do with that tree?" he asked then, pointing at their friend with his chin.  
It became apparent soon enough that James was transfiguring the red and gold baubles into, respectively, small dragons and Snitches. Only, he had obviously not anticipated the little red dragons to be alive, and moments later the four friends were extinguishing the Christmas tree and transfiguring back the decorations. While Remus and Lily weren't looking, James quickly nicked one of the red baubles that was still hiccupping fire, and he winked at Sirius.  
"I always wonder why no-one uses yetis as Christmas decoration. They're also, you know, snowy," Sirius mused as he was looking up and down the Christmas tree, probably only now paying attention to how it was decorated.  
"You really have a thing for monsters, don't you?" Remus said.  
"Only when they look all fluffy and cuddly!" Sirius laughed.  
Remus playfully growled at him and dragged him back to the chair, James following to sit in the opposite one.  
"Next year I want a gigantic Christmas tree with plush yetis instead of baubles," Sirius said determinedly.  
Remus laughed. "I'll come to visit you then, I need to see that."  
Sirius frowned at him. "Why should you come to visit when you already live there?"  
"Live where?" Remus asked with a confused expression.  
James looked from one to the other in amusement.  
"In my flat!" Sirius said, dramatically throwing his hands up in the air. "You agreed to come live with me _ages_ ago."  
"Did I?" Remus was the very image of puzzlement.  
"Don't you want to?"  
"I- I… Yes, of course I want that. I was hoping we would, some day. But I had no idea that everything was already decided in your head and that I had agreed to anything. It's all a surprise – a very nice one." He smiled, still confused.  
Sirius grinned. "Well, that's settled. Now you mention it, you _might_ have been asleep when you nodded after I asked."  
Remus rolled his eyes. "That doesn't count!"  
"It's not my fault that you weren't listening," Sirius shrugged, nonchalantly picking a mini-cake from the tray, but Remus knew him well enough to see that he was beaming.  
"Never let him cook, though, Remus. We don't want our Moony to die from food poisoning when there are so much more interesting ways," James chuckled.  
Remus threw a macaroon at him. "I'm sure he wouldn't _poison_ me. I have far too many advantages."  
"Speaking of which, I told you I'd make up for interrupting you earlier. You two get the dorm to yourselves tonight. Christmas present from me and Lily, we'll find somewhere else to sleep."  
Remus looked up in happy surprise, and Sirius grinned and patted James' shoulder. "You're a good mate, Prongs."  
"Yes, yes, don't get too enthusiastic because I _really_ don't want to think of what is going to happen there!" James said, shrugging off Sirius and disappearing to the other side of the common room, where Lily was chatting with a friend.  
Sirius grinned at Remus. "Oh, he doesn't know half of it," he said lowly in Remus' ear, and the other boy laughed and hugged him, resulting in Sirius falling off the armrest at last, into Remus' lap.

Apparently, James decided that charming the presents under the restored Christmas tree would be safer than changing the decorations, and now he was randomly transfiguring the wrappings – or not randomly, Remus thought, it probably were only those presents that James thought were too stylish that he changed into horrid coloured, shapeless things. He sighed as his brown-and-gold package for Sirius, with beige and brown wool neatly tied around it instead of a ribbon, was turned into screaming pink with red hearts, and turned it back. Having seen that, Sirius of course thought that James' plan was brilliant and climbed out of Remus' lap to follow him. Remus made a small protesting noise but the fire had made him too lazy to stop his friends.  
"They really never run out of energy, do they?" Lily said, dropping herself in the other chair.  
"They're like two toddlers that you think you have in control, and the one second you take your eyes off them they get themselves into trouble," Remus agreed, looking at them.  
James and Sirius just fell in a giggling embrace as they had turned a heap of silver-coloured presents with dapper gift tags into a canary-shaped, eye-hurting rainbow paper with a flashy green ribbon.  
"Boys!" Lily called out as she saw the desperate look on the fourth years girl who had probably spent hours on the wrapping alone.  
It said a lot about Lily's well-known rage that they obediently changed it back for her.  
"My boyfriend is a lot nicer than your girlfriend," Sirius whispered to James.  
"I know," James sighed dramatically, "unfortunately it was already clear years ago that I never stood a chance with him."  
"Sirius is just much more handsome," Remus shrugged, stepping behind Sirius and loosely wrapping his arms around his waist.  
James pretended to do some kind of heartbroken swoon. "You're _cruel_, Moony."  
"Oh dear," Lily sighed. "I'm stuck with the soppiest boys on earth for Christmas."  
"Yeah, I doubt that it was a good idea to make this confession with your girlfriend around, Prongs," Sirius chuckled, laying his hands on Remus' and leaning back.  
"I'm not even jealous, I know what a bother James actually is," Lily said. "You can have him, Remus."  
"Lily!" James dramatically fell on his knees and the three others rolled their eyes – he was once again attracting the attention of half of the common room.  
"Up, James," Sirius said. "I think we've managed our mischief for today."  
James looked disappointed and then grinned. "I'll just get my things from the dorm and then it's all yours."  
"I _am_ planning more mischief once we're in there though," Remus muttered so that only Sirius could hear him, and the other smiled brightly at him as they followed James to the dormitory.


End file.
